Nancy Jackson: Come Together on Renewable Energy

Last week, Topeka hosted dueling scientists.

At a Kansas Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Roy Spencer, research scientist at the University of Alabama Huntsville, acknowledged that our climate is changing but questioned the role of humans in causing it and said climate change could be a good thing, potentially increasing crop yields.

The next day at the Kansas Wind and Renewable Energy Conference, James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA, told a different story. Hansen said fossil-fuel emissions are driving modern climate change, which could bring increased drought, extreme storms and ice melt leading to dislocations of people and economies.

Those who attended both events likely left with at least one common thought: We are not climate scientists. We saw lots of graphs and charts. But how do we decide what, if anything, to do?

The chamber luncheon focused on what not to do at the federal level. Economist Margo Thorning analyzed the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill that was deeply flawed. That bill failed in committee last spring, sending proponents back to the drawing board to design better policy.

The state energy conference, naturally enough, focused on Kansas, where the news got considerably better. According to numerous speakers, we in Kansas have an opportunity to play a pivotal role in shrinking the nation's carbon footprint while actually building our state's economy.

Westar Energy, Kansas City Power & Light, and Midwest Energy presented their energy-efficiency programs that give us the power to lower our bills while maintaining our comfort and convenience. Each program provides savings to customers while bringing real benefits to local economies -- creating work for local contractors (carpenters, insulators, heating and air conditioning technicians) and business for local vendors (efficient furnaces, heat pumps, home appliances, lightbulbs).

Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, challenged Kansas to become the No. 1 producer and exporter of renewable energy in the United States.

Eckhart pointed to our state's 120,000 megawatts of wind energy potential (12 times current peak demand in Kansas), our "excellent" rating for solar energy potential, our leadership in current and next-generation ethanol, and our tremendous biomass resource.

Few states, Eckhart said, are better situated to profit in the 21st-century energy economy -- to the tune of thousands of jobs and many millions in direct payments to landowners and to county and state coffers.

So what do we do? There are enough credible warnings by now to indicate a real risk that -- unlike the mortgage crisis -- should probably be managed rather than allowed to grow. And Kansas has native resources to prosper while we manage that risk.

So rather than debate the fine points of climate science, what if we were to come together -- the chamber, environmental groups, utilities, labor, farmers -- to activate our entrepreneurial spirit, stimulate innovation and harness our valuable native resources? Kansas can be both America's breadbasket and its powerhouse, using resources that are locally plentiful and permanent. Let's roll up our sleeves and get it done together.

Nancy Jackson is executive director of the Climate & Energy Project and the Land Institute in Salina.